


Long Nights

by The_Prince_of_Dots



Category: Thomas Sanders
Genre: Gen, Witch!Anxiety, pre Anxiety name reveal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-13
Updated: 2017-10-13
Packaged: 2019-01-16 16:12:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,328
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12346122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Prince_of_Dots/pseuds/The_Prince_of_Dots
Summary: Anxiety's always up at this time of night, but it's the first time he's seen Princey up so late.





	Long Nights

Anxiety popped into Thomas’s house, on a mission for midnight snacks. He had some in his own section of the dreamspace, but he could never get the snacks to taste quite right, so he preferred to steal Thomas’s. It wasn’t like he was going to miss them. Probably. And since it was past 3 am, and Thomas was sticking to the schedule of being in bed by three at the latest, Anxiety doubted that there would be anyone to catch him.

Of course, that was immediately proven wrong when, upon appearing in the living room, he was assaulted by a ball of paper. “Rude,” he said, without even identifying the perpetrator.

Naturally, that made it all the more satisfying when a certain royal figure jumped about three feet off the couch in surprise. Princey turned around and glared at him. “Villain,” he stage-whispered. “What are you doing awake so late?”

“Uh, staying up late is kinda my  _thing_ ,” Anxiety said, wandering over to the kitchen. As he pulled a soda from the fridge and started looking for the cookies he knew Patton had baked sometime earlier, he said, “It is not, however, yours. So, why are  _you_  awake?”

“At this hour you should partake in the milk instead of the soda.” Anxiety glared. Roman shrugged. “Patton’s advice.”

“You didn’t answer my question,” Anxiety said, putting the soda back and pulling a cup from the cupboard.

“Oh, I’ve not slept for days,” Roman said. “There have been too many new experiences, and I’ve been struggling to keep up with all of it. I have to get everything down, you know–never know when inspiration might strike. Plus, there have been so many artworks from the Fanders–did you know that’s what Thomas’s fans are called? Fanders. It’s so cute, and they send us artwork and I’ve been trying to catch all of those as well, encourage  _their_  creativity. And I’ve been helping Thomas with the videos of course. They’ve been really buggy lately–we’ve even had to call in Logic for help.”

“I know, I was there, remember?” Anxiety said, pouring a glass of milk.

“Yes, and you weren’t helping at all.”

“I was the one who told you to get Logan!”

“Sure, after telling me, Thomas, and Joan that what we were doing was going to ruin the video, only for Logan to tell us to continue doing exactly what we had been doing before!”

“Speaking of which, if you don’t quiet down, you’re going to wake them.” Anxiety found the cookies. He pulled out five.

“It’s just Thomas in the house,” Roman said, noticeably quieter. “Joan went home a few hours after we banished you–”

“Yeah, in a move that surprised no one,” Anxiety said bitterly, taking his drink and cookies and sitting on the other side of the couch from Roman.

“–and Logan, of course, prefers to sleep in his part of the mindscape. And what else were we supposed to do?” Roman said, balling up another piece of paper and throwing it carelessly toward the tv. “We were already running far later than expected, and you were only delaying us further.”

Anxiety “hmm”-ed into his milk but didn’t respond. Roman yawned. There was silence for a few minutes, and then Anxiety abruptly asked, “What are you working on?”

“I’m processing all of our new experiences into possible ideas for our upcoming videos. Any of them that I don’t discard I’ll be giving to Logan in the morning to see if they’re feasible.”

“Dad doesn’t get a say?”

“Patton gets a say on whatever Logan approves. We have to make sure Thomas will want to do the videos.” After a moment, Roman looked up and smirked. “Also, I’m telling him you called him Dad.”

“Don’t you dare.”

“Oh, I’m all  _about_  daring,” Roman said, his smirk now a shit-eating grin.

“I’ll tell Logan you’re the reason his whiteboards all disappeared for a week, then,” Anxiety countered.

Roman gasped. “You wouldn’t!”

“I’m all  _about_  it,” Anxiety mocked.

Roman gave a “hmph,” and Anxiety knew that neither of them would be telling the other’s secrets. They fell into another silence. Roman yawned again.

“You do magic, do you not? Curses and such?” Roman asked.

Anxiety glared suspiciously. “…Sometimes.”

“You should put me to sleep.”

“I’m not killing you,” Anxiety said, looking alarmed that Roman would even suggest such a thing.

“No, not like that!” Roman said. “I meant literally. I have no energy, yet I cannot get myself to go to sleep.”

“Why would you trust me to do something like that?” Anxiety asked. “I’m a villain, remember? You don’t like me.”

“I trust that you are too afraid of damaging consequences to do anything of grave consequence,” Roman said.

“Hmm, you’re right,” Anxiety said. “Which is why I’m not going to curse you at all.”

“What?!”

“Nope. Too dangerous. However, I can give you a boost of energy. After that runs out, I  _guarantee_  you’ll fall asleep.”

Roman pondered the offer for a moment, then said, “Do it.”

“‘Kay. Only catch is that we have to stay in physical contact, so…” He drank the last of his milk and then stretched out across the couch, so his sock-covered feet rested atop Roman’s lap. Instantly, Roman felt a sort of nervous energy, as though he needed to do something now. He needed to be productive, because he was running out of time, but his brain felt a little fuzzy, as though it couldn’t fathom doing anything unless he did everything all at once.

“I see clothing poses no barrier,” Roman said, suddenly scribbling on his pad at a frantic pace.

“Not usually,” Anxiety said, pulling out his phone.

“Is this how you usually feel?” Roman said, trying to concentrate on his work and finding it harder and harder to do.

“I don’t know, how do you feel?”

“I’m not sure exactly how to describe it. Somewhat…itchy, perhaps? As though my emotions are scratchy on the inside.”

Anxiety just gave him a look that conveyed how stupid that sounded. “Yeah, that was a bad way of phrasing it,” Roman muttered. “Never mind.”

Roman stayed mostly quiet after that, doing his best to shut up and stay on task. Anxiety started curling further into the couch, going from laying on his back with his head on the armrest, to laying on his side with his head on one of the couch pillows as the morning wore on. Then, finally, he curled all the way up, bringing his knees closer to his chest and breaking contact with Roman. He’d fallen asleep. His shared energy had worn out.

As soon as they broke contact, Roman was hit with a wave of exhaustion. He barely had time to even put his notebook down before he passed out on his end of the couch.

~

Thomas woke up suddenly, heart pounding, at the first ray of sunlight. The memory of the nightmare was already fading, but the terror was still there. He stumbled out of bed and made his way toward the kitchen for a glass of water. As he got to the stairs, he saw one of the living room accent lights turned on. Someone had been in his house. An intruder!

Then he saw the sword among the scattered paper balls. Roman. Of course. Once he reached the bottom step he saw that, surprisingly, Anxiety was also there. They were, naturally, on opposite sides of the couch, but over the course of however long they’d been asleep there, their feet and legs had gotten tangled together. They’d probably be super embarrassed about it when they woke up. Thomas wished he’d brought his phone. Instead of getting it though, he got a glass of water and returned to his bedroom, leaving the two of them to deal with it when they woke up.

Of course, no one was expecting Patton to pop in bright and early and make them even more embarrassed. 


End file.
